Court reinstates animal cruelty conviction in killing of mother duck

Tuesday

Nov 15, 2011 at 2:29 PMNov 15, 2011 at 2:31 PM

NEW BEDFORD — The state Appeals Court has reinstated the conviction of an Acushnet man, who ran over and killed a mother duck as she led her 12 tiny ducklings through the Dartmouth Mall parking lot in June 2009.

CURT BROWN

NEW BEDFORD — The state Appeals Court has reinstated the conviction of an Acushnet man, who ran over and killed a mother duck as she led her 12 tiny ducklings through the Dartmouth Mall parking lot in June 2009.

A jury in New Bedford District Court convicted Joshua Linhares, 26, of animal cruelty, and Judge Thomas Kirkman sentenced the defendant to serve a year on probation in December of that year.

However, Kirkman overturned the jury’s verdict on Feb. 3, 2010, and found Linhares not guilty of animal cruelty.

Although Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter strongly criticized the killing of the mother duck, he said he would not appeal the judge’s ruling due to financial constraints caused by a $700,000 cut to his budget.

Darragh Keith Kasakoff, a Worcester attorney, stepped in and volunteered to appeal the judge’s ruling, after reading about the case. Kasakoff, on behalf of Sutter’s office, officially filed an appeal of Judge Kirkman’s ruling in May, 2010.

The Appeals Court found in its decision that the trial judge “abused his discretion and committed an error of law when he set aside the guilty verdict and entered a finding of not guilty.”

In comments today, Sutter commended Kasakoff for assisting his office.

“I think this is a shining example of where volunteerism can fill in the need for what government cannot take care of because of limits on government resources. Here is an instance that without Attorney Kasakoff, we could not have been able to appeal because of the limits on our appellate resources,” Sutter said.

“Due to Attorney Kasakoff’s noble action, justice will now be done here. On behalf of the people of Bristol County, I would like to thank him for volunteering his manifest talent in this cause,” he said.